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After all my research and in my last seven bank closure articles, I no longer hesitate to hand out advice. The banking system is falling apart and cannot be propped up. Therefore, each of us must become our own private bank. This does not mean to stop usage of the current banks completely, but caution must be utilized in their use.

I go back and forth between wanting to go get all our money and put it in the gun safe and leaving it in the various banks. I did spread it out amongst banks and credit unions, to minimize the risk. However, in the event of massive bank failures, they'll all go down without any insurance to back them up. On the other hand, one fire in my house could wipe it all out if I had it here.

If you decide to purchase gold and silver, visit a US Mint authorized dealer near you and buy Silver or Gold 1oz. American Eagles, or "junk" silver, aka "bag silver." 'Bag Silver' are 1964-and-earlier silver coins (Halves, Quarters, Dimes) that are 90% silver by mass. For the troy ounce (31.1 grams) they will be about the spot price of silver and so will be cheaper than Silver Eagles. (The easiest way to remember this is that $1 of Face Value = approx 0.725 TOz silver, but it is typically sold at 0.715 TOz to account for wear and tear.) These days, all coins are trading at high premiums to spot value but bargains can yet be found in 1942-1945 silver war nickels, 40% silver-clad 1965-1969 Kennedy halves, etc. If you have enough funds to purchase 5,000 ounces of silver or 400 ounces of gold, you are 1) much richer than I am and 2) should work through a trader to take physical metal off the COMEX exchange.

I don't get the last sentence. If I have physical silver, what does the COMEX exchange have to do with it? I've read on some survival forums that the opinion there is that if TSHTF, silver is silver. A premium paid for ASEs won't net you any more than a generic silver round. Probably true, especially if the US government backing the ASEs isn't solvent.